Characteristics of nickel and iron diffusion in molten lead–17lithium alloy

Abstract Diffusion characteristics of transition metals – nickel (Ni) and iron (Fe) diffusion in the molten lead–17lithium (Pb–17Li) were investigated experimentally under the argon atmosphere in the temperature range from 300 °C to 600 °C by using the long capillary method. The axial concentration distributions of Ni and Fe in Pb–17Li specimens were measured by ICP-MS, and the diffusion coefficients of Ni and Fe were determined based on the Fick's second law. The Arrhenius correlations of diffusion coefficient of Ni and Fe were obtained as D Ni  =7.37 × 10 −5 exp (−4.66 × 10 3 / RT ) (300 °C ≤  T  ≤ 450 °C) [cm 2 /s], D Fe  =3.21 × 10 −4 exp (−2.64 × 10 4 / RT ) (450 °C ≤  T  ≤ 600 °C) [cm 2 /s]. It is found that the diffusion coefficient of Ni is one order magnitude bigger than that of Fe in Pb–17Li. The diffusion coefficient of Fe in Pb–17Li was approximately in the same order as that in lead–bismuth eutectic reported by authors.